


The Last Energybender: Earth

by MistressOfDeath



Series: The Last Energybender [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, BAMF Harry Potter, Badass Katara (Avatar), Best Friends, Dimension Travel, F/M, Female Harry Potter, Gaang (Avatar) as Family, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Master of Death Harry Potter, Multi, Protective Harry Potter, Protective Sokka (Avatar), Smart Harry Potter, Stubborn Katara (Avatar), Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-16 15:47:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28958934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistressOfDeath/pseuds/MistressOfDeath
Summary: Following the events of the Northern Water Tribe, the gang is now on their way to the Earth Kingdom to look for an Earthbending teacher for Aang. The war planning takes a few extra turns, especially by the appearance of another royal, hell-bent on capturing their arses.
Series: The Last Energybender [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2124012
Comments: 34
Kudos: 161





	1. The Avatar State

The night was pretty beautiful. The stars were beautiful. And the view of the galaxy she got from lying on deck was amazing.

She sighed, ran a hand through her loose white hair which spread around her head. Neva was sleeping next to her, but sleep, she wasn't lucky to get it. She felt a little rumble from below. Appa must have turned in his sleep.

Yue and Arnook had given them a boat for further travel so Appa won't have to take all the strain. And she had also questioned her bending preference. Since Yue was now being groomed to be the next chief, the first female chief, of the Northern Tribe, Iris had counted her as an ally and confided into her and her father about her true nature. Arnook was shocked, to say the least, to know that energybenders were still around. Well, he didn't need to know the truth, hehe.

So Iris had shrunk the boat until they were out of icy waters, after which she put it back to its original size, charmed one of the rooms with expanding charm so Appa can sleep peacefully.

Ever since she got the letters, she could hardly sleep. She was too anxious to read them, but also too anxious to not read them too. The kids were sleeping below in their room. So that gave her some piece.

she exhaled again.

Neva chirped and cuddled to her which brought a small smile to her face. she sighed again and conjuring a small Lumos ball, so it won't disturb Neva's sleep, she pulled out the letters from her jacket's pocket.

she tore open the envelope and pulled out a bunch of parchments held together by a small string. Note to self: get them a stapler.

_Dear Iris Annabelle,_

_It's so good to hear from you after so long of nothing. You almost gave me a heart attack, young woman. Once you return, we will be having words about disappearing from the entire dimension to another overnight with just a meager letter._

_Edward, though he prefers Teddy, after his grandfather, dearly misses you. People around him have been telling him your stories and to say it in the most simple way, he looks up to you a lot and couldn't wait for the day you'd return. He drew you a drawing that I've enclosed._

_I'm so sorry to hear that you got sucked into another war, darling. If I didn't know better, I'd say that the Fates have a bone to pick with you. I mean after everything you were subjected to here and now another war in a whole another world? I know asking you to forget everything and return home while there is still a chance is useless. so all I'm going to ask you is to stay strong and fight like you always have. You are more than a soldier or a war general, Iris. You are you._

_And like you asked, I have not informed anyone that you've written to me, other than Teddy. Hermione and Ron have been quite distraught ever since your absence. I can see that they miss their third piece. They've been working pretty hard to bring a change into our world and to make the vision you three saw for this world, a future we deserve._

_George is recovering well and even opened his second shop at Hogsmeade and he bought Zonko once they ran out of business. Last week he released a new line of products, named after you and Teddy was the first recipient of the same. This reminds me to have words with him so he can lend his hand in cleaning the house after the mess Teddy makes with the toys he gave him. He recently, just last week, proposed to that girl from your quidditch team, Angelina. Last I heard from the couple, they are planning an Autumn wedding. Though when that would be, I've got no idea._

_Percy got married last year. Audrey, Percy's wife, is a very down-to-earth and sweet girl. You'd like her. She works at the Ministry, quite closely with Hermione._

_Charlie has still his mind on remaining a singleton for the rest of his life. I swear to Merlin, that boy loves dragons more than anything._

_Bill and Fleur became proud parents to a little blonde girl, Victoire. She's the first blonde Weasley to ever be born. And one with 1/8th Veela blood? She's going to quite a lot to handle, I'm telling you, once she grows old. She's not even two months and her parents are in talk of having a second child. Did that boy learn nothing after having 6 siblings?_

_Teddy is quite attached to Victoire and also a little protective. Don't worry, I'm not thinking of a betrothal between the two. I'm not that bad, Iris. I'm old, not old-minded. And I certainly will not make any such decision until you return._

_Draco started visiting me. Even Cissa did once. Apparently, my dimwit sister finally grew balls and decided to dump the sorry arse named Lucius Malfoy. Their divorce was finalized 13 months ago. Lucius is rotting in Azkaban and Cissa collected her things and moved to Port Grimaud, France to live the rest of her life away from drama. Draco stayed behind. He comes to see Teddy. I was a bit skeptical at first, with his past and all, but he really did seem like a changed man. He took the position of Teddy's uncle and has been quite supportive of me with raising him. When he heard of you leaving, he seemed a little upset, said he was deeply sorry for everything he did to you. And he asked me to not say anything to you. As if._

_Minerva is now running Hogwarts the way it should be for the first time in ages. She had asked me to be the DADA professor. while I was a little skeptical to take the job, I eventually agreed. I have to say, I never thought I'd enjoy teaching as much as I do. Teddy lives with me on Hogwarts Grounds. And apparently like his parents and godmother, he's developing a linking for quidditch. I'd suggest you make it back in time so you can be here for his first game._

_Kingsley is being very proactive with bringing change and a wave of revolution. He was properly elected this time around and he's doing a good job. Especially abolishing discriminatory laws against werewolves, vampires, centaurs, and merpeople. Remus would be happy to see this._

_I checked in with the Gringotts after the letter. Was that much in the trust vault really necessary? And you opened two vaults for him. Really? I understand as his godmother you'd want to spoil him, but this might be a little bit excessive, Iris. We'll also be having words about the same once you return._

_Molly...has been quite upset. I don't know what you wrote in the letter to her, but she seemed to understand that you left partially because of her. Because she couldn't make you feel welcomed and part of the family. Fred's death has been hard on all of them and had been beating herself that she neglected you. All of us have been telling her that it is not the case that you left for other reasons. The situation has improved but not to a great extent. Arthur has been very supportive and The kids have been making sure she remains occupied. She made you a sweater this Christmas and told me she'd be keeping it close until she can personally give it to you._

_Your new friends sound interesting. And so do the rules of the world you are currently in. Energybending, you say._

_I've also sent the books you asked for. Though it does pique my curiosity, why would you need them?_

_Also, Neva is such a precious little thing. She immediately bonded with Teddy, who also loved her company. I'd also like to know how you got hold of a blue phoenix. She seemed very tired after the inter-dimensional travel and stayed here for three days resting._

_Keep fighting, Iris. I have faith in you._

_And you better return the way you went. in a single piece and perfectly fine and healthy._

_With Love,_   
_Andromeda_

Iris blinked back the tears in her eyes. It felt great to hear that everyone was doing amazing. She wiped her tears and flipped the parchment. there were another envelope and a drawing.

The drawing wasn't great, but she was not the one to judge. He was roughly 18 months and a way better artist than she could ever be. And he had drawn her. They were stick figures with names written on top. Her stick figure had black hair, green eyes, and glasses. She chuckled. But then again, he drew her from the stories her friends told of her. She hadn't worn her glasses since her fifth year when Fred and George, with Sirius, dragged her to an Eye healer and got her eyes magically operated on.

She ran her fingers softly over her, Teddy, and Andy's drawings. On the other side of the paper were the Weasleys. All of them. And a dragon(?) she guessed on the top right, for Charlie, she guessed.

She inhaled sharply and ran a hand over her face before pulling the envelope from the string, opening it, and emptying the contents. The books enlarged themselves as soon as they came out of the envelope.

Charms of Defense and Detterences, Quintessence-A quest, Standard book of spells-Grade VII, Defensive Magical theory, Guide to Advanced Occlumency, Anthology of Eighteenth-Century Charms, Guide to Medieval Sorcery, Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes, and History of Magic.

Well, that would most certainly do it. She exhaled and opened her bag, she placed the letter and the drawing in a separate zip with a preservation charm on them. she placed the books in another expanded pocket and zipped it, locking it with some more protection spells. She was just about done when she heard something. She looked towards the source, pushing the Lumos ball a little behind her face to see Aang.

"Kid?" she whispered

Aang looked towards her and smiled softly, before making his way to her. She noticed Katara behind Aang but slightly shook her head. She got this. Katara nodded with a smile and went back in.

"you aren't sleeping? Is everything okay?" he asked, sitting in front of her

She shrugged, extinguishing the ball of light with a silent Nox and gesture of the hand.

"Katara told me that you wrote to your family"

Iris took a deep breath and crossed her legs, "Yeah. everything seems fine with them. They are all great. I was just reading the letter," she shifted and pulled up her one knee resting her chin on it

"What's up with you?"

Aang shrugged as he relaxed a little and looked towards the sky

"Kid," she softly urged

"Nah." he shrugged and sat back forward but slouched, "Just a nightmare."

"I know how they feel" she snorted, "So what did you see?"

He looks up at the galaxy sky, "I was in the Avatar State, but I was outside my body watching myself. It was scary. I was scary." he looked at her, "I saw you too. At Roku's temple. I don't think your eyes were supposed to glow like that"

"That makes two of us." Iris tilted her head, looking at Aang before something clicked. She looked up in the sky as the moon shone.

"You know, back in my world, the man managed to reach up to the moon"

Aang looked at her, excitement quite visible, "Really?"

"Yeah." she scratched her cheek, "Pretty sure it happened about 20 years before the year I left. I could be wrong, though"

"How did they do that? Did they use energybending?"

Iris laughed softly, "No. The major population of my world is non-benders. Non-benders managed to go to the moon and walk on it. They used science"

"It sounds awesome" Aang muttered

"Yeah it does"

* * *

"There it is!"

Iris rolled her eyes, putting her now chest-length hair in a french braid. Thank you, Molly.

"Iris, we are closeby!"

"Yeah, just me a couple of minutes" she called back, going through her bag. Redshirt, nope. Pink one, a couple of wears away from tearing into seams. Mauve top...uh, no. most of the rest she were winter clothes. The summer ones she had were either in the palette of reds and maroons or wait a second.

She pulled out a piece of clothing she was pretty sure she hadn't packed since it was made of...wool. But it was very light wool, almost something that could be worn in summer. And lavender in color. Okay. She placed it on the floor. Where did the top come from?

She checked the rest of her bag and found a small note.

Hope you like it. -Yue

Iris just chuckled before she quickly changed into her sports bra, she kept the dark grey leggings and then her sport shoes. She pulled the new purple top over her torso and she had to say, she looked good.

She packed the rest of her bags and then walked out to find the other three huddled at the edge as the boat closed to the Earth kingdom. Once the boat was close to the shore, Katara waterbended them to dry land. Then Iris and Aang opened the deck latch for Appa to come out. He peeked out and took off a little, hovering over the boat. Once they all vacated the boat, Iris shrunk it back to pocket-size and bagged it.

"We have to get to the other side of the wall," Sokka said

They heard some rustling and soon were greeted by some Earth Kingdom soldiers.

"Hello?" Aang tilted his head

"We are here on the behalf of General Fong to guide you" One of them informed

"Lead the way" Iris shrugged

The soldiers led them via huge gates that closed in after them. Appa flew in over the wall and laid down, quite tired.

Iris smiled, patting his big furry leg, "You deserve some time off, buddy"

Appa just grunted.

Iris then rejoined the gang who were now greeted by some guy in green with a pretty long beard. Like rivaling-Dumbledore beard.

Iris also perispherically noticed Aang, who was upfront, fell back slightly behind her, making her be the front one. Oh, joys of being the oldest.

"Welcome, Avatar Aang!" he greeted graciously

"I am General Fong. And welcome to all of you, great heroes!" he added way too gleefully, "Appa, Momo, brave Sokka, the mighty Katara, and the powerful Iris."

""Mighty Katara"? I like that." Katara muttered from behind her as she went to rub her temples a little. Great. Another title. That was all she needed right now.

She jumped with a yelp when fireworks exploded behind them. She turned around to see a group of four Earthbenders step forward, lifting small, green orbs from the ground and launching them into the air with their fists.

Iris suddenly felt her breath shortening and her body tense up. She could hear her heart beating so hard as if it was trying to jump out of her rib cage. Her palms began to sweat as she repeatedly clench-unclenched them.

She vaguely heard Neva trilling to her, but she was as if paralyzed to even move a finger.

Then she heard some more trilling, followed by

"Iris!"

But the fireworks kept going.

"Stop the fireworks! Now!"

"Iris?"

The sounds were reverberating in her ears

"Iris, look at me. "

Suddenly someone held the two sides of her face and forced her to look in a certain direction. Someone stood in front of her.

"Close your eyes. Take deep breaths"

Inhale. Exhale. In-Inh-Inha-No. No, she can't do it. she clenched her closed eyes.

"Count with me. One. breath in. Hold. Two, breath out. Good. Three... ...Five..."

Iris tried to sync her breathing with the counting and the voice of the person in front of her. They may be reached up to fifteen or was it twenty-five(?) when she realized that her nerves had calmed down.

"Can you hear me clear?"

she exhaled and opened her eyes to see Sokka in front of her, looking at her, concerned but determined.

The fuck had just happened?

"Is she alright?" she heard a rough manly voice

"We...hope so" Katara. It was Katara who spoke.

"Could you please point out our accommodations to us?" she recognized Aang's voice

"Of course."

* * *

The soldier, whose name they learned was Huan, led them to a small cottage.

"Thank you" Iris softly smiled. Huan nodded back and left the four to their devices. Sokka sat her down on a bed and Katara offered her a glass of water.

"Thanks" Iris muttered as she drank it.

"How are you feeling?" Aang asked

Iris blinked twice, "I'm not so sure I feel fine."

"It's alright. You went through some tough shit"

Iris exhaled and tiredly glared at Sokka

"I know. Language"

"We'll get our stuff," Katara said and with Aang, left to get their stuff from the courtyard

Iris exhaled and slightly shook her head before looking back at Sokka, "How did you know how to calm me down?"

"In the middle of an anxiety attack? My dad taught me." Sokka sat next to her, "After," he exhaled looking at the ground, "my mom died, Katara used to have them, since she was the one to find mom. Sometimes I used to have anxiety attacks. So dad taught me how to calm myself and Katara, or any other person in our tribe who might have an anxiety attack.

Dad told me that it was pretty common for warriors and soldiers to have attacks like that with triggers." he looked at her and smiled, "You already went through one war, and after what happened back at the Water Tribe, I don't blame you. Those fireworks must have been the trigger."

Iris smiled as her eyes began to tear slightly and she quickly hugged Sokka, burying her face into his neck.

"Thank you" she muttered

Sokka hugged her back, "You are family, Iris"

Iris smiled and pulled back just as the other two returned.

"Hey, the general was asking if you were fine," Aang said

"I'm better than before, yeah" Iris smiled, softly hugging herself.

"Good for lunch?" Aang asked innocently. She looked at Katara, who rolled her eyes, and then at Sokka, who too looked way too happy hearing about lunch.

"sure. Lunch sounds great"

* * *

The lunch was okay, considering everything, after which they were led into another room. By that point, Iris had gotten most of her composure back and was feeling a bit better.

The room was large, with green-lit columns on each side of a central walkway. A desk was at the far end, with a large banner showing a green circle and a brown square inside of it hanging from the ceiling.

"that's the Earth Kingdom insignia, right?" Iris whispered to Aang, who nodded back

The four sit at the only viable place, the center of the room with a mat while the general sat at the desk

"Avatar Aang, we were all amazed at the stories of how you single-handedly wiped out an entire Fire Navy fleet at the North Pole." the General began, slowly stroking his beard thoughtfully, "I can't imagine what it feels like to wield such devastating power." he stopped, eyes locked at Aang, "It's an awesome responsibility."

"I try not to think about it too much." Aang humbly replied, "Besides, it wasn't all just me. Iris too helped. And so did Katara and Sokka."

Iris narrowed her eyes when the General smiled. She could tell the plasticity of that smile, considering she grew up along purebloods for some time.

"Avatar... you're ready to face the Fire Lord now."

Iris was pretty shocked when she heard that.

"What?! he's not!"

"What?! No, I'm not!"

They both yelled.

"Aang still needs to master all four elements," Katara added

"Why?" General demanded

Iris could tell that "No!" was to the answer he wanted nor what he was gonna accept. He was worked up alright.

He slowly rose from his desk, "With the kind of power he possesses—power enough to destroy hundreds of battleships in a matter of minutes—he could defeat the Fire Lord now!"

Iris perispherically saw Sokka raise his hand timidly and she gave him a grunt of approval,

"But, sir, the thing is Aang can only do those things when he's in the Avatar state."

"See, it's this special state where—" Aang began to explain only to be interrupted by the general.

"I'm well aware." he snapped before lowering his voice gently, "Your eyes and tattoos glow and you're able to summon unbelievable power." he walked around the desk and slowly towards them.

Iris's fingers flexed and suddenly she was all on guard

"Without you, we'd be slaughtered before we even reach their shores. But with you leading the way as the ultimate weapon, we could cut a swath right through to the heart of the Fire Nation." he pointed at the map, drawing a line with his finger from the Earth Kingdom to the Fire Nation.

He took another step forward and soon found a hand pressed into his chest plate

"One more step and you'd be invading our privacy"

Pretty sure no one missed the ice in Iris's voice

"Aang, here, is a kid. A 12-year-old kid. Irrespective of whether he's the Avatar or not. What were you doing when you were 12? chasing skirts or leading armies?"

If she was impressed by the way General's face kept changing color, she didn't show it.

He opened his mouth to say something but she raised his finger and waved it on his face, "I'm not done talking" she deadpanned

General's mouth shut and his jaw tightened.

"Only one person gets to decide when Aang's ready to face the Firelord and that is Aang himself. No one else. Not me, Katara, or Sokka, and most certainly not you. We were told that you'd help us reach Omashu. There were no details about you or anyone else, for that matter, trying to help us regarding any other thing." she took a deep breath

"We are sincerely thankful for everything you've provided to us so far. But I'm afraid we'll be leaving before dusk. We need to find Aang his earthbending teacher as soon as possible."

General opened his mouth to say something but then shut it and then opened again,

"I can some of the finest earth benders at my disposal who would feel honored to teach young Avatar Aang"

"Unless you have King Bumi at your disposal, I'm afraid we'd have to politely decline." she smiled and Fong grew another shade redder.

Finally, he exhaled,

"May I show you something?"

Iris furrowed her brows and she looked at three who shrugged.

"Lead the way?" Iris shrugged slightly

General nodded and turned around and started walking.

"Well, while you take your time learning the elements, the war goes on," he said and Iris clearly heard the condescending tone in his voice.

He led them to a circular window overlooking two orange-roofed buildings. A large crowd was standing outside one.

"That's the infirmary, and those soldiers are the lucky ones. They came back."

Iris took a deep breath and then looked at Aang, who looked guilty. Well, she can't blame the kid there.

"Every day the Fire Nation takes lives. People are dying, Aang! You could end it, now! Think about it."

With one final glare towards Iris, he turned and walked away.

It seemed that she was now trying to make a record of pissing people off by defending Aang. First Pakku and now, this General. She exhaled, rubbing her eyes slightly.

* * *

Iris sat on her bed as she brushed her hair, a book open in front of her. She heard footsteps and saw Aang come in.

"How was the walk?" she asked

He shrugged and fell on the bed. Iris exhaled and turned to face him.

"Kid, whatever happened to those soldiers, it is not your fault."

"But I could have prevented that"

"Really? How?"

Aang opened his mouth to say something but then didn't. Then tried again. That was a pretty cool imitation of fish, and noting the fact that he was possessed by the Ocean and Moon spirit a while ago, he was almost nailing it.

"We already established that everything that happened in your 100-year absence was not your fault." she tucked some white hair behind her ear as it spread over her shoulder.

He looked at the ground, "Is this the consequence I'm supposed to live with?" he looked at her, "What if going into Avatar state would finishing all my problems at once?"

Iris nodded numbly

"Do you remember when we were at the air temple and you found Monk Gyatso's remains? I could tell how horrible and traumatic it was for you. You got so upset that you weren't even you anymore." she exhaled, "I'm not saying the Avatar state doesn't have incredible powers. Helpful, at times, powers. But you have to understand, for the people who love you, watching you be in that much rage and pain is really scary." she tilted her head, "and that's coming from someone who has had one on one with enormous beasts." she muttered the last part.

Aang looked at her, "Every day more and more people die. I'm already a hundred years late. Defeating the Fire Lord is the only way to stop this war. I have to try it."

Iris took a deep breath, "there's a war. A bloody war. And war always has casualties. You cannot prevent it, Aang."

Aang didn't look convinced so Iris got up and sat on the ground in front of him as he sat up.

"You know, I started fighting my war when I was 11."

"When Voldytort possessed your teacher, right?"

she chuckled humorlessly, "Yup. and it's Voldemort." she inhaled sharply, "People like you and me, or even like my best friends, Katara and Sokka, we see things at such a small age that we don't understand their actual significance.

I took the first life at 11, yet didn't understand what death actually meant until I was 14, I think. It's messed up, Aang. Very messed up. Back then I, a kid in every sense, thought it was my job to get rid of the tyrant. To defeat the evil. It wasn't until I grew up until the war ended that I realized that it was never my destiny. Sure, I had to play a key role in his defeat, it wasn't my job to carry the entire burden. No adult helped me."

She sighed, "Sometimes I wonder how much could have been avoided only if some sensible adult had swooped down and stopped me from doing the stupid mistakes I did." she folded her legs and hugged her knees, "Coulda saved a bunch of lives." she looked back at him,

"The only difference between you and me, it is your job to maintain the balance. But you don't have to do it alone or march to someone else's beat. You don't have to face Ozai if you don't think you are ready. Aang, marching there, half-cocked, half prepared is going to be counterintuitive. It can get someone badly hurt."

"Can't you do anything about it?"

"Like what?"

Aang shrugged, "Like lead us?" he asked meekly

Iris smiled softly, "I've had a fair share of leading armies to last this lifetime, kid. Besides, this ain't my war exactly. Sure Energybenders originate from this world but we have long since settled in mine. Here, I'm gonna be following your lead"

"What do you think I should do?" he asked after a long pregnant pause

"Do what you think is right. Not one of us or the General. You."

Aang looked down at his shoes for a solid few seconds.

"I think I need to learn earthbending and firebending before I face the Firelord"

"Fair enough" Iris nodded

They sat there for a few moments and then she spoke again

"I know it is not easy to take such a decision. But trust me, choosing between what's right and what's easy, is where your true character shows." Iris reached and kept a hand on his, "The times are not easy and they are not gonna get any easier. You have no idea how many times I wanted some person, someone, more mature than me, to tell me if what I was doing was right or wrong. To guide me, explain things to me. I wouldn't have made so many mistakes then." she inhaled, "Kid, "she exhaled, "Aang, I don't want you to make any mistake even remotely similar to the ones I made."

Aang nodded, "I understand."

"Good" she patted his knee and got up. She went back to her bed and bagged her book. Wish someone had explained things to her like that.

Dumbledore saw her as a means to an end. McGonagall, Flitwick, and some others weren't in the loop half of the time. Snape hated her. Sirius was imprisoned and then kept separate from her. So was Remus. There's only so much you can write to each other when one of them was a convicted felon. Molly and Arthur had enough on their plate and simply, she didn't expect much from them above everything they were already doing for her without expecting anything in return.

She missed Sirius.

* * *

Katara groaned in sleep and turned. Iris looked at her as she dimmed the Lumos ball and moved it next to her head towards the wall so others won't be disturbed.

While they had originally planned on leaving at the dusk, it had gotten pretty late and Appa wasn't in 100% condition to fly to Omashu. The General managed to convince them to stay the night so the four could leave at dawn. She was sharing a bunk bed with Katara above her while the boys shared one.

She flipped the page, twirling the pen between her fingers. She underlined another sentence and made a small note near the margin.

She swept all her hair over to one side and flipped another page when she heard a gasp. she leaned a little and looked around to see Aang sitting upright on the bed and panting.

He quickly turned

"I..." he looked at her and paused

"Kid?"

He looked at her, eyes quite restless.

"Is everything okay? Nightmare?"

Aang meekly nodded

"You were right. Bringing the Avatar State would be a bad idea"

"Hate to be that person, but I told you so" she grimly smiled and then got off her bed and walked to Aang who had taken the upper level.

"We'll leave tomorrow morning. Alright?"

Aang nodded back.

"Good. Get some shut-eye"

"You too"

Iris smiled, "Yeah, okay"

* * *

By dawn, the four had readied themselves, packed their bags, and loaded everything on top of Appa.

"Sure I can't change your mind?" The General asked

Aang nodded, albeit a little guilty, "I'm sure. I can only reach the Avatar state when I'm ready."

"I see." the General muttered

"Great." Iris exclaimed jumping off Appa and came to stand behind Aang, almost intimidating, "Finally glad you could see our point. Now we must be on our way."

She turned to walk back to Appa when she almost stumbled. She looked down to find her foot encased in rock. She looked back at the General,

"I'm afraid that is not an option."

She heard loud yelps as Katara and Sokka were grabbed by the soldiers.

She quickly shattered the rock around her foot only to be grabbed by soldiers as well.

General stomped heavily as a small sharp rock emerged from the ground and then he pushed it towards Aang who managed to break it with a very sharp gust of wing.

"Aang!" Sokka called, wriggling out of the soldiers' grasp but in vain.

"Men!" the General angrily pointed at Aang, "Attack the Avatar!"

Iris could see the shock on Aang's face.

Well, to be honest, she can easily kick-arse around here, grab the kids, and leave. But she wouldn't.

Lately, she had come to a realization that the kids were quite dependant on her. And while she didn't hate it, rather the opposite, she also knew she wasn't always gonna be there to solve their problems for them. She had already been a little homesick and the letter just increased those feelings. She had always known she had to return home one day and in that case, having a bunch of kids solely relied on you is a bad, bad idea.

So she relaxed. She won't act until absolutely necessary.

General again sent a wave of moving earth toward Aang. He leaped over it.

"What are you doing?" Aang demanded

General looked at him, a sinister expression on his face.

"I'm freeing you from her control and trying to show the reality of the world!"

Iris blinked confused when she found the General's finger pointed towards her.

"My control?" she straightened, "You think I'm controlling him?"

He sneered at her, "Not only are you controlling the Avatar with your manipulations, but you are also holding him back from facing the Firelord"

"If that's what you think, you have officially," she rolled her eyes, "lost your mind"

He straightened back, but the sinister look never left his face.

"We'll see about that"

"Aren't you gonna do something?" Sokka asked

"Iris, he needs help!"

"Eventually, maybe. Right now, no. I wanna see how kid handles it" she replied back.

As if that was the cue, six earthbenders on either side of Aang lifted circular discs of the earth, then hurled them at Aang. The first two rolled toward him from both sides, and he stepped backward, avoiding them. He leaped into the air and spread his body horizontally as two discs flew above and below him. He soured forward, then landed and peered over his shoulder. Other Earthbenders stood ready with more discs behind him.

"I am not your enemy! I won't fight you!" Aang yelled out but that only got four disks hurled towards him.

"Now?"

"Nuh-uh"

"Come on!" Katara exclaimed

Aang leaped over the four disks as they collided right where he was standing. He landed on one of the upright discs, and another flew from the left and knocked it over. As he fell, two of the other upright discs closed in around him. With Aang scrunched in the square holes in the discs, they began to roll. The discs rolled into an Earthbender, who shattered them. Aang went flying and skidded along the ground. He stood up, surveying the troops around him.

"Now?!" Katara asked

Iris shushed them with a glare. Sokka rolled his eyes.

"Well, then, I'll handle it" he muttered and he lifted his legs up and slammed his feet on the guards holding him, which immediately freed him. Katara quickly opened her water skin and water whipped her holders into freeing her.

But as soon as the siblings tried to make their way towards Aang, in the middle of yard o' doom, they stopped.

Iris shrugged and looked at the soldiers holding her, stunned them both, and then joined the siblings.

"Don't know where to interfere, huh?" she asked, folding her arms

The trio watched as Aang ran between two groups of soldiers.

"Okay, that's it" Sokka muttered and pulled out his boomerang and tossed it. Right as he's about to throw his disc at Aang, the Boomerang hit the earthbender's helmet and knocked him out cold-causing his disk to fall over too.

"bullseye" Iris muttered. She never actually knew that Sokka had such a great aim.

And now, Aang was running from some horse-bird hybrid thing, whatever that was. mounted on top of that animal is an earth bender, his spear aiming for Aang. Katara quickly sliced it with her water stream.

"Good bird/horse thingy."

She turned to see Sokka trying to coax one of those hybrids. And once in reach, he grabbed the reins and leaped on its back. Katara was kicking Earthbender ass on her own and Sokka was great with his own tools. She didn't have to do much so just stood on the sidelines, Neva on her shoulder as they watched the entire thing. Now that Aang had kinda learned 2 elements, maybe she could start sparring ti him a little to keep his edges sharp.

"Maybe you can avoid me, but she can't."

That sentence struck Iris weird. And before she could gather her thoughts or reach for fans or daggers, she felt rigidly constricting and that feeling moved upwards her body. She looked down as Neva took off, to see earth molding around her encasing her to her chest. She squirmed, but the mold just tightened.

Now Iris could think of a few spells that could get her out of this moldy situation but now came to her mind that wouldn't hurt her own body too.

"hold on" Katara called and water whipped the mold. Iris winced, closing her eyes, expecting the effect but instead of a crack and spiking pin followed by freedom, she felt weird and yucky. She opened her eyes and looked again to see that the earth mold around her body had now turned into mud.

Oh, gross.

Maybe not entirely bad. She quickly tried to move her arms to free herself but the muddy earth-mold solidified again around her.

"Oh, fucking crap" she muttered, squirming and struggling to get out.

Wait. What if she apparated?

That sounded right and a good idea.

Before she could even twitch her finger, the ground under her started to sink. Her eyes widened as she continued to struggle.

"No, no, no, no!" if her voice went over a few octaves, she didn't register it. That was bad news. She cannot apparate if her destination was clear without horribly splinching herself. she cannot have a clear destination in her head if she can't focus. And she can't focuses if she was almost half buried alive.

"Iris! No!" Sokka yelled

"Stop this! You have to let her go." Aang demanded from Fong

"You could save her if you were in the Avatar state." General maliciously replied

Aang turned to look at Iris, who was buried almost until her waist, struggling to get out. He was frustrated and desperate and he had no idea what to do!

"I'm trying... I'm trying!" Aang cried out.

"Merlin!" she grunted as her body was almost shoulder-down buried and way too busy to focus on what was going around her.

"Don't hurt her!"

"I don't see glowing." General sneered and when got no reaction, he pushed his fist towards the ground.

Iris yelped loudly when the sinking increased speed and ow as chin deep in the earth.

Aang dropped to the ground near General's feet, "You don't need to do this!"

"Apparently I do." he grimly replied, "I have to free you from under her control so you can see your true destiny and defeat the Firelord." he sneered, "You owe us that much, Avatar."

She was almost chin down now. Okay. It sucked. she quickly held her breath and closed her eyes and so the restricting feeling was all over her face.

She couldn't move at all. She couldn't breathe or open her eyes.

Okay. Okay. Deep breaths.

No! Do not take deep breaths.

Calm down. She tried to find her energy and located it very easily. And then she went out to look at other energies. The closest she found was Katara's, so that's where she focused. It took a little longer and it was a bit harder but eventually, she got enough to apparate safely(hopefully). And then she apparated.

The moment she appeared over ground she heaved out a long big breath. Her vision which had to begin to blur was slowly returning to focus. It took her a few minutes until everything was pack in place and that was when she felt the strong currents. The currents, she was vaguely familiar with.

"It worked. It worked!"

Iris winced when a strong current hit the General who managed to shield himself. But Aang was standing in front of him now, billowing.

And Iris had to admit, Kid did look terrifyingly scary and pissed. Something that was clearly reflecting on the General's face. Inside the swirling vortex of wind that surrounded the kid, and his tattoos glowing and the look on his face, every sane man moved out of his way. But then again, Iris was pretty sure from the start that the General wasn't sane.

Instead, that idiot cupped his mouth and began shouting.

"Avatar Aang, can you hear me?! Your friend is safe!" He raised his arms and nothing came out. And he panicked.

He started unearthing various blocks of Earth and with each negative result, he began more and more panicking.

"Please please please..." Sokka muttered, standing close to Katara

Iris took a staggering deep breath and kept a hand on Sokka's shoulder, who yelped.

"Iris!" Katara exclaimed

"Are you okay?" Sokka asked

"Somewhat, yeah. I managed to, well, apparate"

Katara ad Sokka shared a look, then looked at Aang and then shared another look and then looked at her.

"Are you gonna do something?" Katara asked

"Not sure what or how" Iris replied grimly when with a loud bang, Aang slammed into the ground, a cloud of dust shooting forward. General is sent flying. Large chunks of the earth rose from the ground, sending Earth Kingdom soldiers into the air. The wave of destruction crashed into the buildings around the base, cracking them apart.

Iris managed to put out a shield in front of the three as they faced away from the effect. when the trio looked back, they found Aang's body inside an air sphere but not moving like before.

"what's going on?" Sokka asked

Iris truly wished she had the answer.

After a few minutes, during which no one dared go near the sphere, there was a slight twitch by his body and Iris realized something. He somehow went into spirit world. The twitch was so minute, she wasn't sure anyone else noticed it.

Aang's body grew limp and he fell to the ground, out of his Avatar State. He tiredly looked up and looked at the destructed base.

Iris blinked and the next thing she knew, she was rushing to Kid. She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around Aang, who return the gesture, albeit quit strongly.

"I'm sorry, Iris. I hope you never have to see me like that again," he muttered

She smiled and gave him one squeeze before she pulled.

"Are you okay?" Katara asked, to which Aang nodded

"I really don't wanna do something like that again" he sadly muttered.

"Hah! Are you joking?"

The four looked as General walked to them, "That was almost perfect! We just have to find a way to control you when you're like that." he grinned, "It proves that you can be brought from under her control and y-"

There was a loud clang, then a crack followed by a thud.

Every person looked at Iris, who had not only kicked the General in his jewels but also kneed him square in the jaw and knocked him out as he laid on the ground moaning in pain.

"That was for burying me alive, you manky cunt." she deadpanned before she looked at the trio, "Dare not repeat a word I said right now"

The three just nodded. Sokka looked around,

"Anybody got a problem with that?"

All heads are shaken in unison.

"Great" Iris muttered with also cheer

Soon they were approached by another soldier, who bowed to them first, "Do you still want an escort to Omashu?"

The four shared a look

"I think we're all set," Katara replied

* * *


	2. IMPORTANT

This is a note that I'd like all my readers to go over once.

First of all, I'd like to thank all of you for reading my work. Everyone, people who leave reviews, people who don't leave reviews but silently lurk around and read my work but are still supportive and every other kind of reader out there. Thank you so much for sticking so long with me.

In the past, I've received awesome and morale-boosting reviews/comments and some not-so-awesome and not-so-morale boosting reviews/comments(you know who you are). I read all the comments/reviews left by you guys. I may not be able to answer them, but I do read them all.

Before I continue this story any further, I just wanted to put this out there. English is my third language. I've tried real hard to improve. Many people pointed out my mistakes and I've tried to correct them over time. It's highly appreciated.

But there are some reviews/comments that question certain decisions I made with the characters of the story. I just want you all to know that every single decision I make, be it stupid, unreasonable, or totally outright outlandish is there for a reason. If I hadn't explained so in that very chapter, I'd definitely explain it in future chapters. if there are characters who look like they have been 'nerfed' or seem more vulnerable than canon, it has been planned for a reason.

It irks me a lot when readers(especially new ones) don't read the entire work and call me out for making certain decisions with the story. I appreciate that you guys are taking time out of your busy schedules to read something thing I came up with within five minutes when showering and decided to write chapters on. But please, wait till certain stories are finished and even if then you do not find your answers, please do point that out. If something baffles you on, let's say Ch3, you might find its answer on Ch10 or 13 or maybe before or after that.

Also, if you feel disappointed by the story or that it is not up to your expectations, I'm sorry but maybe this fic is not for you. If you feel like any of my stories are a 'load of crap' please stop reading and leave instead of putting that in a review. I'm not here to meet your expectations or to please your fantasy. I'm here to tell my story. And if you think you can do better than this, please go ahead. And also send me a link. I'd love to read your views/fics/povs.

Many people review/comment on their views in a rude or mean way, and while I'm all for constructive criticism, I can do without those comments. And I absolutely hate when people end those comments with something along the lines of-' _I'm sorry if my comments seem rude'_ or _'I had a bad day and that's why I wrote that comment'_ or _'I haven't been sleeping well so I might seem excessively harsh on this review if so I apologize.'_ or _'Now, don't get me wrong. Sometimes my comments sound harsh because my English is not very good and sometimes I use bad words to say what I mean.'_

Honestly, it's kind of hard to not take these things personally, though I do try my best to not let them affect me. And if you do know what you are writing down there isn't nice, then why the fucking hell are you writing that?

I'm here to learn and improve my language, grammar, writing skills, etc.

Also, finally, please, please, (i can't stress this enough) read the notes I put at the beginning/end of the chapters. And this request is not just for my fics, but any and every fic you come across. There's a reason those notes are there. And lemme tell you why I felt the need to include this.

_'Honestly, I'm kinda disappointed by this chapter. it's pretty much last chapter with a couple slightly different details.'_

this was a review left for Ch4, M3. Thank you for reading but I've clearly mentioned at the top of the very chapter that the chapter was gonna be the same as Ch3 with a different pov and to skip if you don't wanna read. At that point, leaving a comment like this is pointless. _ **Read the notes.**_

I have enough going on with my life as it is and writing fics is one of the only 2 escapes I have. I don't write fics for reviews or favs ad follows. I write because I like to write and I'm pretty damn sure I'm not the only one doing so. Please, it's a humble request, do not ruin this for me. If you have anything not good to say, please don't.

The only reason I'm putting this out right now is there are gonna be certain twists and turns in the upcoming chapters that will warrant such responses in the future. I'm gonna completely ignore these reviews, but these do tire me out.

Thank you for reading this and I hope you enjoy the story 😊.


	3. Return to Omashu

"You guys are gonna be done soon, right?"

Iris opened one eye and looked at Sokka as he floated on the river on a giant leaf. She rolled her eye and then closed it back. She lowered herself underwater further till her bottom lip was touching the water surface. Eyes closed, she slowed and deepened her breathing. Underwater meditation was something Duova had suggested to her the last time she visited the spirit world. Apparently, it was much stronger than your regular meditating since it, and to quote Duova, 'increases consciousness and control of the body, allowing you to achieve inner peace through single focus which clears your minds so they become free from our day to day stresses and worries.'

Duova also suggested that doing so would most certainly help her with her panic attacks and anxiety. Since this was the first water body they had come across since whatever shit happened with that stupid General, now was the only time Iris could test the theory out.

"We've got a lot of ground to cover if we wanna make it to Omashu today."

Iris sighed, got back up again, and opened both her eyes.

"Sokka, for the love of everything holy, we deserve a small break. Aang needs to learn waterbending, Katara needs to keep her edges sharp and I need to refocus myself after my last episode. Just because you have nothing to do doesn't mean the rest of us don't either." she pushed back her fringes behind her ear, "Besides, I'm pretty sure none of us are in proper attire to leave on the spot"

"What, like you're ready to go right now, naked guy?" Katara added teasingly

"I can be ready in two minutes. Seriously." Sokka lifted his hair to look at them and then let his arm drop lazily back into the water, "Whenever."

Katara looked at Iris, who shrugged before going back to her meditation pose. Katara resumed teaching Aang waterbending.

The sound of mild waves helped her focus as she tuned out the water bending training. She once again began to refocus her energy when,

"I'm bored~~~"

Iris exhaled, opened her eyes, and looked to her right where Sokka had floated to. Right next to her. He was looking at her with a childish and boring look. She glared at him.

"Not the right time?" Sokka asked

She glared harder.

He exhaled and paddled off with his arms and praying for some silence, she tried to go back to her meditation, again.

Once again tuning everything out, she focused on her breathing. The calmer and deeper her breaths got, the more she could focus on her own energy. She was pretty deep into it when she felt a weight on her head that caused her head to sink down further till her nose and for her to inhale river water.

She flailed, gasping, as she shot out of the water trying to get out the water she inhaled.

"Neva!" she chastised, frowning at her phoenix who bent down to look at her owner, "the bloody hell, birdie?"

Neva trilled, pointing with her wing in a certain direction. Iris raised a brow as she got up a little, so water reached her chest area, and she looked in the direction. A few seconds later she heard music(?) and singing. Okay. What the fresh hell?

Soon a group of travelers dressed in a colorful mix of styles walked by playing instruments and singing. One was carrying a guitar-like instrument and wearing a wreath of flowers and then he began to sing softly.

"Don't fall in love with a traveling girl. She'll leave you broke and broken-hearted..."

And a whole troupe followed his lead to start singing and dancing. The woman on his right was in black and pink, with thick hair adorned with a single flower played and she played the flute. A rotund fellow behind him wore a white and pink robe, a coolie hat, and played a drum.

Iris checked over the gang once to find them all focused on this weird group of singing hippies. And then suddenly, Sokka's leaf boats capsized and he yelled as he falls into the water.

Iris giggled and Sokka glared at her. That was enough to attract the attention of those hippies.

"Heh-hey! River people!" the guitar-like-guy smiled pointing at them

Katara quickly gestured negatively, as Sokka resurfaced behind her, Momo landing on his arm, "We're not river people."

"You're not? Well, then what kind of people are ya?"

"Just... people," Aang replied

"Aren't we all, brother? Whoo." he sounded pleased.

Iris raised a brow as she got up entirely, a slight shiver running down her spine when her half-naked form was hit by cold winds. She walked out of the water and picked her old pink shirt and quickly draped it over her wet sports-bra-shorts-covered body. Neva jumped down to her extended arm from her head as she came to stand next to Sokka, who was still mostly naked with Momo perched on his shoulder.

"Who is asking?" Iris asked

"I'm Chong, and this is my wife Lily." he indicated to the woman on the left. She made a little curtsy.

"We're nomads, happy to go wherever the wind takes us!"

He riffed on his guitar like a real-world rock star for a moment, his voice not at all matching the various random notes he plays.

"You guys are nomads That's great! I'm a nomad." Aang enthusiastically replied

"Hey, me too," Chong replied

"I know... you just said that," Aang replied flatly

"Oh." Chong muttered and his attention wandered elsewhere, then to Sokka, "Nice underwear."

Sokka's eyes bulged at the sudden realization that he is wearing very little in front of complete strangers. He grabbed Momo and placed him strategically over his body and sidled rapidly off to where their mostly dry clothes and luggage were.

* * *

Iris groaned. She hated when people, especially strangers, touched her. Yet somehow, here she was sitting on the ground getting her medium length braided in some weird intricate style by Lily. Which was pretty ironic in itself.

And it wasn't just her who was getting braided. One of the nomads was braiding Appa's lochs of fur and adored them with many small pink flowers.

Chong was playing his instrument entirely offkey and Iris was mostly tolerating it, not wanting to use any energy bending just because. She heard some footsteps and saw Sokka, come sit close to her.

"Hey, Sokka, you should hear some of these stories. These guys have been everywhere." Aang excitedly said

Chong stopped playing, "Well, not everywhere, Little Arrowhead. But where we haven't been we've heard about through stories and songs."

Sokka raised an eyebrow in skepticism.

"That was my reaction too," Iris muttered to Sokka

"They said they'll take us to see a giant nightcrawler," Aang added

"And I said no" Iris sternly replied

"There you go, dear. All done." Lily smiled at her. Iris smiled back, mostly out of politeness, and shifted away as Katara took her former place.

"On the way, there's a waterfall that creates a never-ending rainbow." One of the nomads added, sighing dreamily.

Sokka and Iris exchanged a look, full of doubt, skepticism, and slight irritation.

"You got it," Iris muttered, squeezing his shoulder as she got up with a grunt to get dressed. She walked to where their stuff was and changed her undergarments and pulled back her lavender top, black leggings, and sports shoes. Her hands went to her hair on muscle memory, but she stopped when she felt the braid pattern and decided to let it be. She quickly tidied everything and got everything together before she carried them all to where everyone was.

"...and as Iris said, no sidetracks, no worms, and definitely no rainbows." Sokka finished

"Whoa... sounds like someone's got a case of "destination fever," heh. You're worried too much about where you're going." Chong chuckled

"You've gotta focus less on the "where" and more on the "going."" Lily added, finishing Katara's braids

"O-Ma-Shu," Sokka replied emphatically, his face getting further distended and exaggerated with each syllable until his warped features were almost too much.

She sighed, keeping a hand on Sokka's shoulder as he relaxed a little.

"We have to go to Omashu. King Bumi is expecting us as soon as possible," she added

"They're right. We need to find King Bumi so Aang can learn earthbending somewhere safe."

Iris looked at Katara ad raised a brow. Katara looked clueless for a second before she realized what she had slipped out and promptly shut up.

"Well, sounds like you're headed to Omashu," Chong exclaimed

Sokka smacked his forehead loudly at this.

"Easy there," Iris whispered to him.

"There's an old story about a secret pass...right through the mountains." Cho ng said, a little ominously

"So it's a story. A legend." Iris folded her arms

"Oh, it's a real legend. And it's as old as earthbending itself." and then he started playing his guitar and singing, "Two lovers, forbidden from one another... a war divides their people, and a mountain divides them apart. Built a path to be together." he stopped and continued in a normal tone, "Yeah, and I forget the next couple of lines, but then it goes..." and he continued to sing enthusiastically as everyone else danced, "Secret tunnel! Secret tunnel! Through the mountain! Secret, secret, secret, secret tunnel! Yeah!"

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Iris muttered, pinching her nose bridge. What increased those feelings was when everyone but Sokka, started dancing ad singing.

She took a deep breath and clapped once loudly. And then she had the attention of every single person.

"Chong, Lily, thank you for everything. The stories, the hairstyling, and the lovely time we had. But we must leave and I think flying to be much more preferable for us."

"Yeah. Thanks for the help, but Appa hates going underground and we need to do whatever makes Appa most comfortable." Aang added, standing up. He smiled widely at the end of this statement.

* * *

"Good thing you know camouflaging," Sokka muttered as he looked below at the huge Fire Nation cavalry looking for them, or any hostile actually.

Iris hummed, "I'd have liked to see this secret tunnel Chong talked about if we weren't in a rush to get to Omashu."

"Maybe Bumi will show you the tunnel" Aang added

"Hmm," Iris sighed, "first things first, though. We'll have plenty of time to go look for a 'real legend' tunnel." she looked down as they almost passed the Fire Nation Cavalry.

In another 30 or so minutes, they landed at the same spot as the last time. They quickly got off Appa as they once again climbed a top of the hill

"The journey was long and annoying, but now you get to see what it's really about - the destination," Sokka noted

"And here I thought you didn't like Chong." Iris teased while the two young benders chuckled.

"Eh, he was alright." Sokka shrugged, as they almost reached the mountain top, "I present to you the Earth Kingdom city of O..." he froze, "Oh, no..."

And he wasn't the only one. In front of them lied the devastated fortress city of Omashu. It was surrounded by what appear to be siege towers. The city was smoking and appeared to be on fire in several places.

Iris stepped forward looking around when she finally spotted it at the city entrance. the Fire Nationa insignia.

"Bloody fucking hell," she muttered

* * *

"I can't believe it. I know the war has spread far," Aang turned to face them all, "but Omashu always seemed...untouchable."

Aang again looked back at the fallen city

"Up until now, it was. Now Ba-Sing-Se is the only great Earth Kingdom stronghold left." Sokka muttered

"This is horrible, but we have to move on," Katara suggested

"But this doesn't make sense." Iris finally spoke

She looked at the three who looked back at her, "This," she gestured towards the huge fallen city, "doesn't make a lick of sense. Bumi is an awesome earthbender. His army or military or whatever he has is great and strong. He has freaking living crystals at his disposal. This wasn't supposed to happen unless..." she stopped

"Unless what?" Katara asked

"Unless he did it on purpose," Sokka finished, realizing her train of thought. He looked back at her, "You think King Bumi surrendered?"

Iris took a deep breath, "I guess? That seems like the only logical explanation I can think of."

"But why would he do that?" Katara asked, "Why wouldn't he put up a fight?"

"To save the lives of his soldiers" Aang answered

Iris took a deep breath and folded her arms, "Whatever be the reason, we need to find Bumi and see if we can lend a hand."

Five heads turned to her.

"What?"

"Since when did you want us going into Fire Nation Territory?" Sokka asked

Iris exhaled, "Far as I know, Bumi is the only decent shot we have for kid to learn earth bending. Besides, we haven't really kicked Fire Nation arse since we left the Northern tribe. If we did manage to chase them out of Omashu, while we are already here to look for Bumi, I'd say it's a win-win situation." she shrugged

"What if Bumi's..." Sokka trailed off

Aang turned to look at Sokka, his expression hardening, "What? If he's what?"

Sokka looked away but Iris took over, "Kid, they ended the entire species of Air Nomads. It...We should keep this option open to us, should...you know"

"I know you both had your heart set on Bumi, but there are other people around who can teach Aang earthbending," Katara added

"This isn't about finding a teacher. This is about finding my friend." Aang snapped. Okay, so maybe she hadn't thought of that. She had forgotten momentarily that kid was nearly 112 years old and Bumi is his friend.

"Let's do this, then"

* * *

"Should I ask how you know about this?" Iris raised a brow at Aang as the four got off Appa, who floated beside the ledge at the base of the Omashu side of the moat.

Sokka was the last to get off and Appa grunted a little. Aang looked at her as if caught off-guard by that question.

"You know what? forget it. Forget I asked" Iris quickly added

Aang gave her a nervous grin before he moved some scaffolding and smokestacks there were against the wall.

"A secret passage?" Sokka asked

In front of them was a capped drain pipe emerging from the wall. Iris shared a quick look with Neva, perched on top of her head who gave her a pretty equivalent of a shrug.

Aang jumped atop of the pipe and using his staff as a lever, tried to open the drain gate.

"Why didn't we just use this last time?" Sokka asked

The gate popped off, releasing huge gout of greenish sewage, some of which washed over Sokka.

"Ugh!" he grunted, looked worried at his disgusted state

"Does that answer your question?" Aang asked

"Yeah, it does," Iris replied, quite repelled herself. As if the first time she did that wasn't enough already.

She eyed the pipe opening as the greenish sewage continued to pour out of the pipe as Aang swung inside and disappeared up the pipe.

Iris, Neva, Katara, Sokka, and Momo looked into the pipe and the flies that were buzzing around it and exchanged another look.

"What did I ever do to you, kid?" she asked rhetorically

Sokka groaned and jumped into the pipe and covered his nose as he moved forward. He wasn't exactly being silent about his aversion to this plan.

Aang led them, airbending the sewage out of his way with his staff. Iris was quick to conjure shields to protect them from any sewage that was thrown back from Aang's receding wake.

And that did not stop Sokka from making frequent "ew!" and "ick!" noises. It was disgusting, yes. But Sokka was just making the situation worse by his running commentary.

Aang stopped under a manhole, waited for a few seconds, and then popped the manhole off. A few seconds later, Aang pushed it open with his hands and peered out. a moment later he dropped the manhole cover and jumped out in the open. Neva flew out after him. Next went Katara, then Sokka and Iris at last. It was already pretty late at night. Which had its advantage for them.

"That wasn't as bad as I thought," Katara muttered

"In that case, our definitions of 'bad' are vastly different, Kat" Iris grunted, "'Cause I stink and I'm disgusted. I'm gonna presoak myself in water for 30 minutes before washing," she muttered the last part.

"Guys?" Sokka called, sounding worried, "I think I'm sick"

"Oh grow up, Sokka." Katara asked, "It was just a sewer"

Iris looked at Sokka, who slowly turned around to face them. Iris almost yelped. On either side of his head were two purple-like creatures stuck.

"That's gross. I'm gonna be sick," Iris muttered and swallowed whatever bile reached her throat.

A second later they both palpitated a bit and squeaked, causing Sokka to scream.

He grabbed one creature in each hand and tried to pull them from his face, but their suckers kept them attached. He stretched them out to an absurd distance, but still, they hung on.

"Aaahh! Aahhh! They won't let go! Help! Aaaak!"

Aang pounced on Sokka, pinning him to the nearby wall, then released him. Sokka now sat on a crate, a sour and resigned look on his face.

"Stop making so much noise. It's just a purple pentapus."

The pentapus' began to palpitate again, making slight squishing noises. Sokka's eyes bugged out as he looked to either side of his face in horror and terrified, and slightly choked noises emerged from his throat.

"Sound awful like leeches back in my world, I guess. One of the best ways to remove them was fire," she snapped her finger and a tiny flame started floating atop her finger.

"There's another way!" Aang quickly added, "I can remove them without harming them."

He gripped the nearest pentapus and its head with his finger. It raised its tentacles from Sokka's cheek and popped off his face without further fuss.

"Or you could do that" Iris muttered, extinguishing the flame

While rubbing his free cheek, Sokka repeated the process on the other side of his face. The other pentapus squeaked a bit and released Sokka's right check with another little popping sound.

Iris, conjuring a Lumos ball, walked to him and grabbed his face. On either side, where the pentapus were stuck, were now little red dots in the shape of the tentacle suckers.

"Doesn't look like they sucked blood. They were just hanging around on your face. Huh" she scoffed

"Wait, what? blood?" Sokka asked

"Leeches in my world would suck blood," Iris said, letting go of Sokka's face and extinguishing the Lumos ball.

"Your world is weird" Katara noted

"Couldn't agree more," Iris muttered and looked at the other two, "You guys good?"

Katara nodded. Aang reached behind Sokka and pulled out a third purple pentapus which made Sokka yelp. Before they do anything further, Neva trilled softly as she settled on a nearby tree, hard to spot.

"Fire Nation," Iris whispered, as she quickly pulled a hood that came with the top to cover her braided white hair. Yue was a genius. Or whosoever made that top definitely was. Aang quickly disappeared and reappeared a moment later with a red, flat top-hat hiding his Airbender tattoos.

"Hey!"

The four turned towards the source and spotted two fire Nation soldiers heading for them.

"Play cool," Iris muttered

"What are you kids doing out past curfew?" one of the soldiers asked

"I was just getting them home. You know, kids," she sighed tiredly, "Do they ever listen?"

The soldiers frowned.

"We should go now"

She quickly wrapped her arms around the three and herded them away.

"Now what?" Sokka asked

"We'll figure something out" Iris replied

"Wait! What's the matter with him?"

The four stopped and turned around. One soldier was pointing at Sokka and looked scared and worried(?). Huh? Iris looked at Sokka and quickly turned him. On his neck was a very visible, very angry look pentapus mark. Were they talking about it?

She shared a quick look with Katara and Aang. Katara must have noticed her blank out because she quickly stepped up and placed a hand on Sokka's shoulder.

"Uh...he has pentapox, sir."

One of the guards walked up to them and extended his hand to touch him.

"Um...it's highly contagious!" Katara earnestly added. Iris looked at Katara with slight amusement. If she hadn't known how those marks came to be, she might have believed that.

The guard hesitated and then pulled back.

Sokka quickly raised his arms and began to walk very zombie-like and started moaning half heatedly.

"Uuuuuu...It's so awful...I'm dyiiiing..."

"...and deadly..." Katara added

Sokka continued to moan and lurch forward as the guards began to lurch back to avoid contact.

"Wait, I think I've heard of pentapox." one of them turned to the other, now looking shit-scared, "Didn't your cousin Chang die of it?"

Sokka advanced, coughing and spitting up gunk at them.

"We'd better go wash our hands...and burn our clothes!" the other added before they ran off.

As soon both the guards were out of sight, Sokka stopped his act and straightened up. Iris looked at both the siblings, amused.

"You, great thinking," she smiled at Katara and then looked at Sokka, "great acting. You kinda nailed the zombie thing"

"What's a zombie thing?" Sokka asked

Iris blinked and then she groaned, realizing that zombies aren't a part of this world.

"Nothing much. Keep up the acting if they show up." she looked at others, "If this is our ruse, we have to keep it up. And if he's got pentapox and it is contagious, we are supposed to have the symptoms as well."

Aang raised his hand where he held a pentapus.

"All thanks to our sewer friend"

"Yeah," Iris nodded, "and he's gonna be a lot more useful now."

* * *

The four moved around Omashu as agile as possible. Neva was keeping an overhead eye for them and trilling every time a guard patrol would approach them or they'd approach one.

"Let's find Bumi and get out of here," Katara said

"Took the words right off my mouth," Iris whispered as she looked up to spot Neva who flew towards them, did a u-turn, and flew ahead. They were clear.

"Where would they be keeping him?" Sokka asked

"Somewhere he can't earthbend." Aang replied, looking up and around, "Somewhere made of metal."

"Isn't metal just purified and refined earth? Just asking," Iris looked at the three, "And it's Bumi. If someone can metalbend its gotta be him"

"But metal bending isn't a thing" Sokka added

"Okay," Iris inhaled, "in that case...considering he's an earthbender...a wooden box suspended in the air? I don't know."

Sokka nodded, "She maybe right"

"Guys?"

"What?" Iris looked at him as he pointed down. On the level lower to them was a Fire Nation troop going on. She looked up to spot Neva only to find a large amount of debris aiming for the troop.

"I got it," she muttered and with a rumble, the whole collection of massive debris was launched to bury the troop alive. As soon as that debris was about to pass them, Iris cast a big enough Reducto and sure enough, the massive debris got reduced to pebbles and dust.

Good thing, lives were saved.

Bad thing, there was a fucking massive dust cloud and well, their cover was blown.

As the four looked down to make people were alright, the young girl who was a part of the troop looked up. Iris couldn't help but look right back at her. Emerald green stared into dull brown. Something about her seemed off.

"The resistance!" The woman next to the girl holding a baby loudly exclaimed

The girl smiled slightly and instantly fanned out her arms, releasing a hail of small arrows.

"Holy fucking motherfucker! Now would be a good time to run," she quickly exclaimed as the four started running.

Katara quickly turned and water whipped the two ladders the soldiers were using away, causing them to fall down. The girl somehow made it to the above level pretty quick and shot similar arrows again only for Katara to make a wall of ice. Iris quickly followed that with an explosion of the nearby ground, hoping the dust might cover them.

"Go, go, go" Iris muttered, rushing Katara. A little safe distance and they'll have the girl all by herself and then it'd be easier to fend her off.

The quickly passed Aang, who nodded at her, "I'll cover"

Iris gave a nod back and slowed down as he locked off the entire scaffolding to collapse. Aang's eyes widened when he saw a single sharp small and tiny thing maing its way for him through the scaffolding. Before he could spin his staff to stop it, a fan flared in front of his face and the thing collided with it with a metal clink and fell down.

The fan got folded and Iris stepped ext to him, fans on both hands. The girl decided to take a clear shot one more time. Next thing Iris knew, she was falling down. Wait. what the ever-loving fuck?

* * *

"Iris?"

Iris looked up at Katara who looked at her a little worried.

"I know I'm not supposed to complain for my age, but my back hurts, my head hurts, my arse hurts, my legs hurt and my heart's hammering. Did I mention my head hurts?"

"Yes, you did"

"You okay?"

"Yeah"

Iris wined, rubbing her backside, as Katara helped her up. She turned to look at Aang and Sokka

"Boys?"

"We are good"

Iris nodded and looked around the cave, spotting an earthbender, "where are we?"

"It a cavern under Omashu. We've been using it as a base to our resistance." the resistance leader informed her. He led them to a ledge in front of the main exit tunnel from the room, which was lit by several lamps hanging from the walls.

"So, is King Bumi with you guys? Is he leading the resistance?" Aang quickly asked

The resistance leader looked at them intensely, "Of course not! The day of the invasion, we readied ourselves for battle. We were prepared to defend our city...to fight for our lives and for our freedom. But before we even had a chance, King Bumi surrendered."

* * *

Iris had known that Bumi surrendering was a pretty good chance. But to actually hear that was as well as a punch to the gut.

"It doesn't matter now. Fighting the Fire Nation is the only path to freedom. And freedom is worth dying for." The resistance leader sighed

"Actually there's another path to freedom." Aang perkily added, "You could leave Omashu. You're directing all your energy to fight the Fire Nation. But you're outnumbered. You can't win. Now's the time to retreat, so you can live to fight another day."

"A leader needs to know when to quit and retreat. This is not the time to fight. Fire Nation is relentless. You can't beat them. Leaving, you settle down anywhere. Go for Ba Sing Se. You all will be safe there." Iris looked around before looking back at the leader, "You can avenge Omashu later"

"You don't understand. They've taken our home, and," he made forceful hand motions to add emphasis, "we have to fight them at ANY cost!"

"I don't know, living to fight another day is startin' to sound pretty good to me." one of the resistance soldiers spoke up

Another fighter stepped forward from behind the first guy, "Yeah, I'm with the kids!"

"I'm 20," Iris muttered offhandedly

The Resistance Leader looked down into the cavern where the other fighters and displaced citizens of Omashu whispered their agreement. He turned towards them, "Fine. But there are thousands of citizens that need to leave. How're we going to get them all out?"

"Suckers!" Sokka loudly exclaimed

Iris looked at him confused, "I bed your pardon?"

Sokka pointed at the red pentapus marks, "suckers!"

He looked the whole cavern, eyes darting back and forth, "You're all about to come down with a nasty case of pentapox."

"Oh Merlin and Morgana"

* * *

Iris winced as the pentapus palpitated on the guy's cheek before she rubbed his head and pulled the little purple pentapus off. She looked at the red marks and then went to apply the pentapus on the guy's neck.

"The marks make ya look sick, but you gotta ACT sick, too. Ya gotta sell it! I call it the Zomby act! You gotta act like you are dying!"

Iris sighed, putting the pentapus into the water bucket, "It's zombie"

"Zombie act," Sokka gave her a curt nod

"What has the world come to?" Iris muttered, pushing her top's sleeves until the elbows again, before going to attach the pentapus onto another guy's skin.

An old man walked between Sokka and the crowd, groaning pathetically and holding a hand to his allegedly aching back.

Sokka placed his arm around an earth kingdom citizen next to him, "Now that's what I'm talkin' about."

The old man looked back at Sokka. He tapped his wooden leg with his cane and smiled, "Years of practice."

It took them all another hour to finish doing everyone and also to teach them how to act. Once done, the four came to stand in front of the crowd. Sokka pointed towards the city and raised his voice to address the crowd.

"Okay, everyone! Into sick formation."

That made Iris chuckle. Katara looked at her in question ad she shrugged, "it was funny"

The whole crowd and Sokka started walking out. Katara moved into the join but turned as Aang started in a different direction.

"Aang, what are you doing? Aren't you coming with us?" she asked

"No. I'm not leaving until I find Bumi," Aang replied

"Good. I'm coming with ya." Iris quickly added. She quickly turned to Katara, "You are in charge," she turned to Momo, who was holding Aang's face, "Neva's doing air support. Wanna join her?"

Momo chittered at her and flew off.

"Come on," Iris pulled the hood over her white hair, and off they went.

* * *

Iris apparated them to Bumi's castle in a shady hallway.

"Why didn't you go with Katara and Sokka?"

"Kid, walking through the sewer is one thing. And I admit that pentapus things are kinda cute. But no way is that thing touching my skin. Nope. I won't be caught dead with that on my body."

She crouched and concentrated with closed eyes, looking for a powerful earthbending energy.

"Bumi isn't here," she looked at Aang "who else we looking for?" she asked, looking around

"Anyone that has anything to do with Bumi," Aang replied, as the two started walking

Iris stopped in front of a massive room and then looked at Aang behind her, "Isn't this Bumi's pet's room?"

"Flopsie!" Aang exclaimed and entered. They walked to the center of the sanctuary to see Bumi's pet, chained to a millstone, pushing the turnstile that drives the mill on his hind legs, all by himself.

"Oh you poor thing"

"Flopsie!"

Aang jumped down into the enclosure and stood with his hands stretched to receive a hug, but Flopsie was restrained by his chain. He made some unhappy noises.

Iris looked at him softly before she too jumped into the enclosure while Aang froze and broke the turnstile. While Aang was busy with that, she broke Flopsie's chain only to be scooped and hugged by the gentle giant.

"Yay I missed you too, Flopsie." She chuckled, petting his head

Flopsie let her go and quickly replaced her with Aang, who climbed atop Flopsie in the next moment, "Come on, Flopsie. You gotta help me and Iris find Bumi. "

Iris climbed on Flopsie behind Aang and secured herself.

"Let's go," she called and Flopsie took off at high speed into the streets of Omashu

* * *

"Can't believe it. Last full moon I was having a buffet at the Northern Tribe. This full moon, I'm looking for a deranged earthbending king on his pet...whatever Flopsie is." she shrugged kicking a piece of rock as the two made their way to the camp the Omashu citizen had set. She quickly looked at Aang, "No offense, kid"

Aang shrugged in response, "Flopsie is a goat gorilla"

"Great. A goat gorilla. That's just fucking great" she muttered, "I'm sorry, kid"

Aang just shrugged again. Flopsie tiredly grunted.

"We are almost there, darling" she cooed at Flopsie

As soon as Katara and Sokka spotted them, they walked over to them.

"We looked everywhere. No Bumi." Aang told

Katara reached to hug Aang and Sokka reached to hug Flopsie when he made sad noises. Neva and Momo landed on Iris's arms and she gave them a quick squeeze. Their little reunion was interrupted by the resistance leader

"We've got a problem. We just did a head count."

Katara pulled and looked at him, "Oh no. Did someone get left behind?"

"No," he pointed at somewhere, "we have an extra."

Iris followed his gaze and,

"A baby?" she asked, letting go of the animals to pick the toddler, "where did you guys find this handsome guy?"

The toddler cooed at her and laughed, reaching for her loose white strands of hair.

When she got no answer just clueless looks, she walked to the campfire and sat down, others following her and taking place.

"You are so cute and chubby," she cooed, bopping his nose and cheeks, which made the baby laugh.

"Sure he's cute now, but when he's older, he'll join the Fire Nation army. You won't think he's so cute then. He'll be a killer." Resistance leader snarked

"And you and your men tried to crush a troop under a rock avalanche and kill them. Your point?" Iris raised a cold, hard eyebrow

"Besides," Katara turned and showed the baby's face to the leader, "Does that look like the face of a killer to you?"

Iris got him back and held him securely only for the kid to yawn.

"Someone's sleepy." she cooed and started patting him to make him fall asleep.

The Resistance Leader's face became grave. A few minutes later, a hawk landed on nearby rock.

"A messenger hawk!"

"Shhhh!" Iris frowned

Aang reached for the message and unscrolled it, "It's from the Fire Nation governor. He thinks we kidnapped his son. So...he wants to make a trade. His son for King Bumi." he looked at them

* * *

"Usually I support your decisions, as long as they aren't stupid, but kid, I gotta say, this is kinda stupid." Iris crossed her arms as Aang walked back towards them with the baby in his arms.

"You realize we're probably walking right into a trap?" Sokka asked

"I don't think so. I'm sure the Governor wants his son back as much as we want Bumi. It's a new day." he spread his arm, emphasizing the rising sun, "I have a good feeling about this."

"Like when you had the good feeling about ice skating down a waterfall and almost broke your face?"

Aang looked at her with a serious expression, "They are two different things. "

"Sure, kid" she rolled her eyes, "Either way you aren't going alone. That's my point"

* * *

"This is it," Iris muttered, holding a cheery baby in her arms, as he tried to reach for her hood now. This baby was very, very grabby and handsy.

In another minute, a platform rose on the opposite side of the construction platform and in it were 3 girls. One of whom she saw the last night throwing arrows out of her sleeves. This couldn't be good.

Her hold of the baby tightened. Just because the baby was fire nation doesn't mean she'll just let anything happen to him. He was a baby. An innocent baby.

She heard some metal creak and groan and looked up to see a crane lowering a metal coffin, suspended by a chain. Okay, she was half right about where they would have kept Bumi.

And she had no idea why they all were worried so much. Inside the coffin, Bumi was laughing and giggling like he was brought to a picnic and not captured by the enemy. Sure enough, the coffin twisted on the chain to reveal Bumi's face, visible through a porthole just large enough for his face.

"Hi, everybody!" he grinned

Iris just shot him a vague smile as the coffin landed right behind the girls.

"You brought my brother?"

Iris raised the baby as an answer.

"He's here. We're ready to trade." Aang took a step forward

"I'm sorry, but a thought just occurred to me. Do you mind?" The girl in the top know spoke.

"Of course not, Princess Azula."

Wait? Princess? As in Zuko's possible sister, Princess? Holy fuck. They barely managed to get rid of Zuko and Iroh and now this! She could really use some royal break.

"We're trading a two-year-old for a king." Azula looked at Bumi, "A powerful, earthbending king."

Bumi smiled, closed his eyes, and nodded at her, "Mmm-hmmm!"

"It just doesn't seem like a fair trade, does it?" Azula told the arrow girl

The girl looked away from Azula and towards her brother in Iris' arms.

"The trade is a life for a life. It is a fair trade," Iris added sharply. The baby cooed at her, again trying to reach for her hood. Iris shifted her stance when she saw the baby's sister making her way towards them

"You're right." she looked at Aang, "The deal's off."

She raised her left hand and Bumi was lifted back off the ground as the chain was reeled in from above.

"Whoa! See you all later!" Bumi chortled as he was hauled up. Aang tried to call for Bumi and walked towards the girls. Suddenly he jumped high in the air, as if to avoid something. He landed on part of the partially constructed building and jumped off again. He opened his glider in mid-air, but in the process lost his hat, exposing his tattoo. He grabbed the hat with his mouth before it flew away, but it is too late. Damage was done.

"The Avatar!" Azula exclaimed, a smirk taking over her features, "My lucky day."

Azula ran over to the elevator winch and released the break with a blast of blue fire. The winch began to spin rapidly as Azula grabbed one of the chains attached to the mechanism. The winch rose rapidly toward the top of the construction scaffolding.

As if it wasn't enough that Apparatanly the royal bitch was after Aang, the baby's sister, and Pinky decided to charge at them.

Iris was pretty impressed by the several blades in her hands. Iris quickly thrust the baby onto Sokka and looked at Neva, who was perched nearby and gave her a nod.

Katara got her waterbending stance as Iris pulled out her metal fans.

"We've got to get the baby out of here!" Katara said

"Neva's getting Appa!" Iris replied, "Go, I'll cover."

As the two started running, Iris looked ahead at the sister, eyes narrowed. And then someone fell. she looked over her shoulder to see Sokka on the ground, holding the bay tight.

She looked at Katara who gave her a nod and quickly prepared water-whips for Pinky. Iris turned to the sister and flared her fans are she threw her little knives. Thanks to weeks worth training from Duova, Iris pretty much manage to deflect all of the knives.

She turned around and threw those little knives back at the girl. She moved her hands and threw a lasso of fire around the girl's foot and then pulled so hard, that the girl got dragged with it.

"Switch?"

Iris panted, looking at Katara before she nodded.

"Go!" she yelled at Sokka as Pinky jumped on top of the platform and swiftly made her way towards her.

Pinky was good. And she was aiming for her pressure points. And she trained with Duova, who loved jostling her pressure points to make her numb. With practiced fluidity, Iris not only managed to block every attack by Pinky but somehow managed to put a jelly-leg jinx on her. Pinky quickly lost her balance and fell down. she tried to stand up but in vain.

She turned around, taking long deep breaths to find the baby's sister trapped in ice till waist and both her arms in ice.

"We good?"

Katara nodded taking a deep breath. She looked at Sokka, and he nodded back.

She looked down at Pinky one last time.

"Let's go"

"Appa's here" Sokka climbed atop Appa. Katara followed him. Iris went to but stopped, and looked at the arrow girl, "He's your brother. And a baby."

And she climbed on top, "Let's get kid and leave"

Appa took off as the trio looked around the huge scaffolding to spot him.

"There's Aang!" Katara pointed

"We can catch him!" Sokka added

Appa carefully flew to a safe distance and Iris got on her knees, "Kid?!"

Aang hopped off to a different level as Azula, who continued assaulting him with blue fireballs. This was the first time she had seen a different colored flame. The hell?

"Hang on, Bumi! Our ride's here!"

That snapped Iris off her thoughts. She looked at Aang, who struck the chut with his staff, launding the coffin out of the chute. Katara and Iris tried to grab the coffin as it passes overhead, and iris kinda caught it, but the momentum of the coffin was too much and she had to let it go. The coffin sailed over Appa and fell down the other side. Bumi screamed on the way down, more out of excitement than fear.

As they land crosswise on another chute, they broke right through it. They fell through to another chute, this time landing lengthwise and they began to slide down once more.

Azula continued to pursue them in her box. She created a circular saw blade of blue fire and launched it at the coffin. As it approached, a pillar of earth to rose up through the chute just in time to absorb the blast.

"Color me surprised" Iris muttered as the trio witnessed everything.

"Let's get them," Sokka said, pulling on Appa's reigns

They pulled behind Aang just in time to see Bumi earthbending himself away on the chute.

"Kid?"

Aang looked at her and then got on Appa.

* * *

"Now you be a good boy to your mum and dad. And grow up to be good, strong, and kind Fire Nation citizen." she booped the baby getting a giggle outta him, "And while you are at it, try knocking some sense into your big sister, okay?"

The baby muttered some gibberish and giggled. She exhaled and handed the baby to Aang. Aang carefully glided down from the ceiling and released the baby on the balcony floor before quickly pulling up. The baby toddled over to his parents and was greeted with joy.

Aang and Iris shared a smile and left just as quietly as they came.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG! Thank you so much for all the responses from you guys. I posted that as a 'Back off, I'm done taking your crap' but I was not expecting this amount of feedback. Thank you so so so much.
> 
> With everything going on, these comments have been making my days since. I can't thank you guys enough for making me smile.
> 
> Enjoy the next chapter and you know the drill.
> 
> Ciao


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